Charles Wiley's son John (born in Flatbush, Long Island, 4 October 1808; died in East Orange, New Jersey, 21 February 1891) took over the business when his father died in 1826. The firm was successively named Wiley, Lane & Co., then Wiley & Putnam, and then John Wiley. The company acquired its present name in 1876, when John's second son William H. Wiley joined his brother Charles in the business.[5][6]

Through the 20th century, the company expanded its publishing activities, the sciences, and higher education. Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize in 1901, Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel Laureates, in every category in which the prize is awarded.[5]

One of the world's oldest independent publishing companies, Wiley marked its bicentennial in 2007 with a year-long celebration, hosting festivities that spanned four continents and ten countries and included such highlights as ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on May 1. In conjunction with the anniversary, the company published Knowledge for Generations: Wiley and the Global Publishing Industry, 1807-2007, depicting Wiley's pivotal role in the evolution of publishing against a social, cultural, and economic backdrop. Wiley has also created an online community called Wiley Living History, offering excerpts from Knowledge for Generations and a forum for visitors and Wiley employees to post their comments and anecdotes.

While the company is led by an independent management team and Board of Directors, the involvement of the Wiley family is ongoing, with sixth-generation members (and siblings) Peter Booth Wiley as the non-executive Chairman of the Board and Bradford Wiley II as a Director and past Chairman of the Board. Seventh-generation members Jesse and Nate Wiley work in the company's Professional/Trade and Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly businesses, respectively.

Wiley's Professional Development brands include For Dummies, Jossey-Bass, Pfeiffer, Wrox Press, J.K. Lasser, Sybex, Fisher Investments Press, and Bloomberg Press. The STMS business is also known as Wiley-Blackwell, formed following the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing in February 2007. Brands include The Cochrane Library and more than 1,500 journals. The WileyPLUS brand refers to an online Higher Education product.

With the integration of digital technology and the traditional print medium, Wiley has stated that in the near future its customers will be able to search across all its content regardless of original medium and assemble a custom product in the format of choice.[11] Web resources are also enabling new types of publisher-customer interactions within the company's various businesses.

Higher Education's "WileyPLUS" is an online product that combines electronic versions of texts with media resources and tools for instructors and students. It is intended to provide a single source from which instructors can manage their courses, create presentations, and assign and grade homework and tests; students can receive hints and explanations as they work on homework, and link back to relevant sections of the text.

"Wiley Custom Select" launched in February 2009 as a custom textbook system allowing instructors to combine content from different Wiley textbooks and lab manuals and add in their own material. The company has begun to make content from its STMS business available to instructors through the system, with content from its Professional/Trade business to follow.[12]

In January 2008, Wiley launched a new version of its evidence-based medicine (EBM) product, InfoPOEMs with InfoRetriever, under the name Essential Evidence Plus, providing primary-care clinicians with point-of-care access to the most extensive source of EBM information[13] via their PDAs/handheld devices and desktop computers. Essential Evidence Plus includes the InfoPOEMs daily EBM content alerting service and two new content resources—EBM Guidelines, a collection of practice guidelines, evidence summaries, and images, and e-Essential Evidence, a reference for general practitioners, nurses, and physician assistants providing first-contact care.[clarification needed]

In October 2008, Wiley launched a new online service providing CEU/PDH credits to architects and designers. The initial courses are adapted from Wiley books, extending their reach into the digital space. Wiley is an accredited AIA continuing education provider.[citation needed]

Wiley's scientific, technical, and medical business was significantly expanded by the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing in February 2007.[14] The combined business, named Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (also known as Wiley-Blackwell), publishes, in print and online, 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books, major reference works, databases, and laboratory manuals in the life and physical sciences, medicine and allied health, engineering, the humanities, and the social sciences. Through a backfile initiative completed in 2007, 8.2 million pages of journal content have been made available online, a collection dating back to 1799. Wiley-Blackwell also publishes on behalf of about 700 professional and scholarly societies; among them are the American Cancer Society (ACS), for which it publishes Cancer, the flagship ACS journal; the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing; and the American Anthropological Association. Other major journals published include Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Hepatology, International Finance and Liver Transplantation.[15]

Launched commercially in 1999, Wiley InterScience provided online access to Wiley journals, major reference works, and books, including backfile content. Journals previously from Blackwell Publishing were available online from Blackwell Synergy until they were integrated into Wiley InterScience on June 30, 2008. In December 2007, Wiley also began distributing its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service.

Wiley Online Library is a subscription-based library of John Wiley & Sons that launched on August 7, 2010, replacing Wiley InterScience.[16] It is a collection of online resources covering life, health, and physical sciences as well as social science and the humanities. To its members, Wiley Online Library delivers access to over 4 million articles from 1,500 journals, more than 14,000 books, and hundreds of reference works, laboratory protocols, and databases from John Wiley & Sons and its imprints, including Wiley-Blackwell, Wiley-VCH, and Jossey-Bass.

In 2008, Wiley was named for the second consecutive year to Forbes magazine's annual list of the "400 Best Big Companies in America". In 2007, Book Business magazine cited Wiley as "One of the 20 Best Book Publishing Companies to Work For". For two consecutive years, 2006 and 2005, Fortune magazine named Wiley one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For". Wiley Canada was named to Canadian Business magazine's 2006 list of "Best Workplaces in Canada", and Wiley Australia has received the Australian government's "Employer of Choice for Women" citation every year since its inception in 2001. In 2004, Wiley was named to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Best Workplaces for Commuters" list. Working Mother magazine in 2003 listed Wiley as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers", and that same year, the company received the Enterprise Award from the New Jersey Business & Industry Association in recognition of its contribution to the state's economic growth. In 1998, Financial Times selected Wiley as one of the "most respected companies" with a "strong and well thought out strategy" in its global survey of CEOs.

In August 2009, the company announced a proposed reduction of Wiley-Blackwell staff in content management operations in the UK and Australia by approximately 60, in conjunction with an increase of staff in Asia.[17] In March 2010, it announced a similar reorganization of its Wiley-Blackwell central marketing operations that would affect approximately 40 employees. The company's position was that the primary goal of this restructuring was to increase workflow efficiency. In June 2012, it announced the proposed closing of its Edinburgh facility in June 2013 with the intention of relocating journal content management activities currently performed there to Oxford and Asia. The move would impact approximately 50 employees.[18]

In its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had "closed a deal...to make its titles available for the iPad", and was looking forward to improving its e-book sales (only $7 million United States, less than 2% of overall sales in fiscal year 2010).[21]

In 2008, John Wiley & Sons filed suit against Thailand native Supap Kirtsaeng over the sale of textbooks made outside of the United States imported into the United States.[22] In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held 6–3 that the first-sale doctrine applied to copies of copyrighted works made and sold abroad at lower prices, reversing the Second Circuit decision which had favored Wiley.[23]

On February 17, 2012, Wiley announced the acquisition of Inscape Holdings Inc., which provides DISC assessments and training for interpersonal business skills.[24] Wiley described the acquisition as complementary to the workplace learning products published under its Pfeiffer imprint, and one that would help Wiley advance its digital delivery strategy and extend its global reach through Inscape's international distributor network.

On March 7, 2012, Wiley announced its intention to divest assets in the areas of travel (including the Frommer's brand), culinary, general interest, nautical, pets, and crafts, as well as the Webster's New World and CliffsNotes brands. The planned divestiture is aligned with Wiley's "increased strategic focus on content and services for research, learning, and professional practices, and on lifelong learning through digital technology".[25]

On August 13, 2012, Wiley announced it entered into a definitive agreement to sell all of its travel assets, including all of its interests in the Frommer's brand, to Google Inc.[26]

On October 2, 2012, Wiley announced it would acquire Deltak edu, LLC, a privately held Chicago-based leader in higher education and online learning. The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of October, will significantly accelerate Wiley's digital learning strategy and diversify the company's service offerings to include operational and academic solutions for higher education institutions. Deltak is expected to contribute solid growth to both Wiley's Global Education business and Wiley overall.[27]

Wiley in December 2010 opened an office in Dubai, to build on its business in the Middle East more effectively.[28] The company has had an office in Beijing, China, since 2001, and China is now its sixth-largest market for STEM content. Wiley established publishing operations in India in 2006 (though it has had a sales presence since 1966), and has established a presence in North Africa through sales contracts with academic institutions in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.[29] On April 16, 2012, the company announced the establishment of Wiley Brasil Editora LTDA in São Paulo, Brazil, effective May 1, 2012.[30]